News in Salem

The City of Salem is pleased to announce a new joint venture between the city’s public library and farmers market that will take place in the heart of the Downtown District starting this Saturday. “Learning on The Lawn” will be held on the large green space in front of the Salem Public Library and feature everything from DIY workshops to home brewing.

The City of Salem is pleased to announce that voting is open for the fifth annual "Pride in Salem Green Awards" that are designed to recognize businesses and organizations that take pride in our community and make Salem a great place to work, live and play.

The 36th annual Chance Crawford Benefit Softball Tournament will be held this weekend, April 15-17, throughout the Roanoke Valley. The highly successful charitable tournament is a regional effort put on by the cities of Salem and Roanoke and the counties of Roanoke and Botetourt. For this year’s tournament, there are 140 teams representing Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Tennessee.

The popular “Salem After Five” concert series will begin a brand new season on Friday, April 29, with “The Kings” performing on the Salem Farmers Market stage. The event will get underway at 5:30 p.m. and all proceeds from the first event of the season will benefit The Salem Food Pantry.

The Salem Fire & EMS Department responded to a fire at the Big Lots retail store located at 1227 West Main Street this morning, at approximately 10:39 a.m. The fire was contained to a storage room in the back of the building, however, the store did sustain some smoke damage.

The Salem Sheriff’s Office has received several citizen inquiries about phone calls they are receiving related to jury duty in the city. The scammers are telling citizens that they have failed to report for jury duty and must adhere to certain instructions.

On Friday, March 18, Brian T. McKay, 35, of Salem was arrested and charged with 23 felony counts of possession of child pornography. The arrest is directly tied to an ongoing child pornography investigation that is being conducted by the Salem Police Department.